At the same time.
In an alley somewhere in Academy City's Seventh District, violence was underway.
"W-What are you going to do...!?"
"D-Don't do anything rash! We can talk this out!"
"Y-Yeah! We admit we were wrong! We shouldn't have teased you just because we saw you walking alone through an alley like this!"
"So let's talk! Let's talk this ooouuut!"
Amid the screams of several delinquents, lightning-like sparks erupted from the alley, blue-white flashes illuminating the surrounding area.
When the electric light faded, all that remained in the alley was scorched blackness and a group of small-time thugs lying on the ground, twitching all over like frogs.
The culprit stepped out of the alley with unmistakably foul-tempered strides.
She wore Tokiwadai's winter uniform and carried a backpack, from which hung a frog-shaped little mascot called Gekota, a toy quite popular with children.
Combined with the blue-white sparks that occasionally flickered through her bangs, the identity of this ill-tempered young lady from Tokiwadai was abundantly clear.
"Seriously, even when I come out for a night walk, I run into something this irritating..."
Misaka Mikoto strode down the nighttime streets with an exceedingly displeased expression.
"And now this, and all the Ichiran Festival preparations during the day... Why have I only been running into annoying things lately?"
The Ichiran Festival.
It was an enormous cultural festival involving every level of school in Academy City.
This massive event also served as an open-campus event and an opportunity for prospective students to experience the schools.
Since it was directly tied to each school's application rates, the Ichiran Festival generally required extensive preparation. Schools invested their most cutting-edge technology to attract attention for the sake of enrollment, and unlike the Daihaousei Festival, which welcomed ordinary visitors from all over the world, its main target